An expert from U.N., who stayed at Bujumbura for the diplomatic missions and with whom I was able to met, encouraged the initiative. In addition of his moral encouragement, he submitted to the U.N. Security Council a letter that I had addressed to the President of the Council on the tentative nature of the solution to lasting peace in the Great Lakes region of Africa.

Eric speaking at commemoration of International Day to People with Disabilities.

I was convinced and I remain convinced that the instability of the peace in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) affects all the Great Lakes region of Africa. When anyone wants to look for a lasting solution, he must bring a contribution there. My exchanges with all of the personalities from around the world finally pushed me to a conclusion: We needed to consolidate the situation in Burundi before spreading activities to other African nations.

Since 2008, we have consolidated our energies first inside Burundi with the principle to first count on our own strengths and the support will come after. My entire team works with this conviction and we reach for positive results. Through this vision, we asked former combatants to start income generating activities by their own contribution and CEDAC will bring donors in the field to visit and support the projects that have been successful.

Members of CEDAC during the campaign against armed violence in Burundi.

Remembering my situation when I was child soldier, I thought how I could help children who were in the same situation as me and founded an NGO that could train other child soldiers in computer science and mechanics. Currently, CEDAC possesses a structure of the ex-fighting women from the hills until the national echelon because of the financial support of the UNIFEM, especially as we are convinced in CEDAC that “To Educate a woman is to educate the entire nation” and “No peace without the inclusion of women as well as no development without women.” A structure of youth network within CEDAC is already functioning. The young must be cultivated in development as they are the future leaders of this world.

Our vision

CEDAC vision is a peaceful and sustainable developed world. Some of the organisation's members have directly participated in armed conflict, while others have been victims of conflict through their indirect participation. CEDAC wants to interlink all victims of conflict within and across borders. Our vision seeks to eliminate conflict and sustain peace by creating means of reintegration for ex-combatants and others indirectly affected by conflict.

Our mission

Our mission is to support all victims of armed conflict. We seek to reduce armed violence through job creation, as well as offering other types of victim assistance such as psychosocial support to facilitate reintegration into society.

CEDAC values

At CEDAC, we hold our values of transparency, tolerance and honesty in the highest regard, because without these values we would not be able to survive as a not-for profit aid organisation. For example, without transparency our finical supporters, those involved in our projects and other stakeholders would not be able to hold us accountable. This in turn leads to an environment of mistrust.

It goes without saying that we uphold and value honesty at CEDAC. We believe that acting openly and honesty is not only good practice, but is essential for working in development and aid.

CEDAC is built also under a tolerance basis. This implies a high degree of acceptance for differences of races and ethnicity, background and diversity of ideas. Thus, CEDAC is an environment where contribution is reserved for everyone.